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What did I say?
* * * *
“Yeah, I know what I said, but you’re just going to have to tell them I backed out.”
Dustin had walked out below one of his favorite oak trees to make the call to his literary agent in New York. David Brown was a bulldog, and Dustin had liked that about him when they’d first met.
Now? Not so much.
“You want me to pull a book that we’ve been offered seven figures for? Are you crazy?”
Dustin scrubbed his hand over his face. He could understand David’s frustration. When he’d first pitched him the book about a bridal party for hire business that catered to the stars, he’d been intrigued, but when Dustin had pitched it as an exposé, David couldn’t send off the proposal fast enough. That had been fine when he hadn’t really known Kelly, or Marley.…
Then Rylie had happened.
And even though he wasn’t taking any money for being a professional groomsman, violating the confidentiality clause would ruin Something Borrowed. Rylie deserved to have her bakery, Marley deserved to have her wedding venue and Kelly, well, she had gone from being a shop girl in a bridal boutique to having her own company. It had hit him like a ton of bricks that if he did this, he would be ruining their lives, and Rylie would never forgive him.
“Yes, I want you to pull the book. Say that I made the whole thing up.”
“And what if they want it as a work of fiction?”
“Tell them I’m not writing it, and if I don’t, no one is.”
David was breathing hard on the other end, and Dustin hoped he wasn’t having an anxiety attack.
“Look, Dustin, I don’t know what’s going on, but I think you need to take some time to think this through.”
“Pull the book, David, and I’ll make sure you are compensated.”
Dustin clicked off the phone call and let out a shaky breath. God, he really was an asshole. Every time someone had asked him why he was working at Something Borrowed, he’d just smirked. All of this had come about because he was bored and miserable, and liked making other people around him just as unhappy.
He was like the Grinch or Ebenezer, only this wasn’t a Christmas redemption tale. It was real life and he’d almost screwed up and hurt the woman he…
Loved?
“There you are! Is everything okay?”
Just the sound of her voice rose goosebumps across his skin. Was this what love was? Finding joy in just the other person’s presence? Putting their happiness before your own?
No wonder he’d avoided this for so long.
“Yeah, everything is good.”
She cocked her head to the side and her gaze clearly said she wasn’t convinced. “You sure? Because you looked a little pale when you ran out here and I heard you using your bossy voice.”
“What else did you hear?” he asked hoarsely.
“I couldn’t hear what you said, just how you were speaking.” She took several limping steps closer to him and touched his cheek. “Are you feeling okay? You seem tense.”
Dustin’s heart slowed as he forced himself to relax. Rylie didn’t know what he’d almost done and she was out here, worried about him.
That was a win in his book. He didn’t need to focus on his feelings for her right now. Besides, it seemed as though they should try their hand at a date first before they started dropping the L bomb.
“I’m fine, really.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and her eyes lifted to meet his. “I have been thinking though. About you and me.”
“You and me?” she squeaked.
“Yeah. We’ve worked together several months and were neighbors for five weeks. I feel like we’re friends. Am I wrong?”
